Housing Rules May Curb Bernanke Efforts to Bolster Economy

Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Increasing housing regulation may
blunt the impact of Federal Reserve efforts to bolster the
economy with low mortgage rates, said David Stevens, president
of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Regulators are introducing conflicting policies that
create more risks and costs for lenders, Stevens said today at
the organization’s annual conference in Chicago. He called for
the next president to create a role for a housing policy
coordinator to help avert contradictory policies.

“The reality is regulators don’t seem to talk to each
other and that’s a problem,” Stevens said during a panel at the
Hyatt Regency.

The Federal Housing Finance Administration has been pushing
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to standardize their operations to
reduce taxpayers’ costs and make it easier for sellers,
servicers and investors to work with the two companies. The
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, meanwhile, is crafting so-called qualified mortgage regulations as part of a broader
overhaul of housing-finance oversight.

Stevens, former Federal Housing Administration head and ex-Freddie Mac executive, said the mortgage industry is fully
dependent on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the companies
should be more transparent.

“They can implement policy as though they were still fully
private companies,” he said. “They can literally rock our
world overnight with a policy change. This is unacceptable.”